The Red Barn - Recap

The episode begins with Lisbon knocking at Jane’s door; they have got a case to solve! Lisbon knows that Jane was trying to find Red John by making a list of people he has met. But he corrects her and tells her that he is making a list of people he has shaken hands with. They arrive at the crime scene; a bar; the victim is shot and no id. Jane looks at his face and points at something on his face. Lisbon bends down to take a look at it and our victim pulls Lisbon towards him and kisses her. HAPPY ANNIVERSARY! It has been 10 years since Lisbon joined CBI. The entire department is present there. Ray arrives and asks Lisbon out for lunch as he wants to discuss few things.

They have s stripper called in for Lisbon and he is keeping her busy. There is a real case and Cho and Jane arrive at the crime scene; Elliston. They meet the Police Chief, Rick Anaya. There are bodies found in the secret basement of the barn. Some children, who were playing in the barn, found the trap door and found some bones. They died 20-25 years ago and there are three skeletons found. There are shot gun pellets found but no casings; so maybe they were killed somewhere else and then dumped here. There is also a class ring found; could belong to one of them. There is a .38 found and one round has been fired. There is a wire on the wrists and it seems that two of them were tied up with it. Jane finds it very depressing and goes outside. He then sees the wall of the barn.

There is a red smiley; Red John! So, the Red John symbol outside the barn is weird. Lisbon arrives at work and Rigsby is hung-over. Cho tells Lisbon that the killings happened in ’88 and the ring was traced back to Lester Bradovich, who went to high school in Dickson. Jane shows her the picture of the wall and she is shocked. The murders happened 10 years ago before Red John was even active. And moreover shot gun wasn’t his weapon of choice. Cho gets details on Lester who has some priors and he went missing after ’87 and he has a brother. No one filed a missing report. Cho and Rigsby go to meet Gordon, the brother. Gordon tells them that he did not know that Lester was dead. He did not file a missing report as they never thought that Lester was missing.

He tells them that Lester always got into trouble with the law and later he joined a group, Visualize, which straightened him out. He then came to them and said that the group wanted him to cut all ties with his biological family as that is the only way his real identity could emerge. Jane and Lisbon go to the Visualize HQ. Ray calls Lisbon and asks her for lunch. They then meet Cooper. Lisbon tells him that they want to meet Bret Stiles, the Head of the group. Cooper tells him that Bret was called out of the country. Jane knows Cooper. Cooper says that he could answer any questions on Bret’s behalf. He feels that all the three people where their church members. He says that in ’88 Visualize owned the Elliston farm and all those who worked there was a member. The group owned a lot of farms around.

He then says that Elliston farm was run by Lester and two other people; Martin and Allen. The church had found the farm abandoned and they felt that the three men ran off. Grace finds out that Allen’s family in Idaho did file a complaint; but nothing much came out of it. Lisbon doesn’t like cold cases as there are no leads or suspects. Jane takes her to a diner Rick had suggested. Jane tells her that this diner is the place which contains the history and stories of all that happened in the last fifty years. They learn that the waitress knows about the three murders and she points them to her source of information; Miles Mac Cambridge. He is a retired professor. He knows about the group and he also tells them about a disgruntled farmer; Tom Crayhew.

Just then Rick arrives and Jane notices that Miles does not like him. Rick was a former student and quite a bully. Miles quickly leaves. The team goes through the files from Visualize and Grace finds out about Peter DiBuono who worked at the farm and could give them information. Lisbon tells Cho and Rigsby to go and talk to Tom. Ray meets Lisbon at lunch and he offers her a new job. He is starting up his own firm and he wants her to join. She tells him that she loves her job and it is not about the money. He feels that she wants to stay because Jane. Cho and Rigsby meet Tom and he tells them that Visualize stole his water and they diverted his stream towards their farm. He also remembers Lester who threatened him. But he was not involved with the killings.

He tells them that the group also treated their animals very brutally; ritualistic torture. He tells them the name of the vet who wanted to call the County on them; Preston. Jane and Lisbon go to meet Ellen Preston; but she is suffering from Alzheimer’s and so she cannot talk. They then talk to the daughter; Holly. They tell her about the satanic tortures on animals. Holly at once knows that they have been talking to Tom. She says that it is not true. Jane notices that Holly has done very well academically. Peter arrives at the precinct. Peter tells Grace that he ran the Elliston farm for a while and then Lester took over. Lester was a true believer and he used to make the people work for hours; he used to also give them drugs to keep them working. Jane talks to Peter and asks him about the Red John’s smiley.

He says that he had seen it when he visited the farm a short while after he left. Martin had told him that some kid who worked at the farm had done it. So, now who sold Lester the drugs? No one from that time is around anymore. Jane knows of one person, Chief Rick Anaya. Rick admits that he sold speed to Lester and that he was 17 at that time and it was no big deal. But later, Lester wanted more and so Rick put him on to some people who stalked large quantities. He writes down the names. Lisbon has a lead on the gun they found at the barn. But Jane has a quicker way to solve this murder. He asks Lisbon to gather all the people they interviewed at the diner. Ray arrives to meet Lisbon. He then asks her about the materials Cooper sent her. But Lisbon wonders how he knows about it as no one else knew about it.

She realizes that he is a part of the group. He admits that he is. Later, Jane sneaks into the diner at night and we see him using a fruit and paper and draw something. The next morning all the suspects arrive at the diner. Ellen Preston is also there with her daughter and she recognizes Red John’s smiley and starts to react. Rick moves to arrest her and holly tells them that she is the one who killed Lester. She says that she was driving by the farm with her mother and her mother went in to check on them. She got into a fight with Lester and he attacked Ellen. Holly shot him to protect her mother. But she did not kill the other two. She tells them that she and her mother went to the basement to dump the body and they saw that the other two bodies were already there.

Holly says that she felt that someone else was present there; someone was watching them. Next, ray arrives to meet Lisbon and he says that the church is not happy that a killer of the church members was given minimal sentence. He got some calls. Lisbon then asks Ray if he was ever sent to the farm to work. He doesn’t answer anything. Later, Jane tells her that he has narrowed down the list of people who he met and shook hands with. The list of people who worked on the Elliston farm would narrow it down considerably. He is getting close; and there are some interesting names as well! The episode ends.